Porous defense costs Bucs’ Smith his job
Linebackers coach Duffner to replace veteran coordinator
TAMPA — Exactly two weeks ago, Bucs coach Dirk Koetter stood at the same podium following the Bucs’ embarrassing 48-10 loss at Chicago and asked this rhetorical question: “We fire Mike Smith. OK, then what would the next move be?” The Bucs are about to find out. On Monday, after watching the defense dig another deep hole in the first half at Atlanta, Koetter fired defensive coordinator Smith.
Smith’s defense was last in total yardage in 2017 and is allowing 34.6 points per game this season, the most in the league. The Bucs are on pace to allow the most points in NFL history.
They have been doomed by slow starts on defense. Tampa Bay has allowed an average of 30.7 points in the first half of their last three games, all defeats.
On Sunday, the Falcons scored on four of their first five possessions to build a 21-6 lead.
Koetter said 65-year-old linebackers coach Mark Duffner will replace Smith as defensive coordinator. He will continue to also coach linebackers.
Koetter and the Bucs were hoping Smith could solve the problems during the bye week. That might have been a better time to dismiss Smith to give Duffner a chance to evaluate and decide what changes should be made without the immediacy of facing Cleveland Sunday.
Why didn’t Koetter make the move after watching Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky throw six touchdown passes?
“Because we were going into the bye week. We had quite a few things, injury-wise, not work out the way we originally planned,” Koetter said. “I thought it was important that both sides of the ball be able to go through the selfscouting process during the bye week and see if we could make some adjustments that would help us play better as a football team. I do think we had a good plan on defense for Atlanta. We did a lot of things we planned to do. We did